


TV's Son of TV's Frank [fanmix + ficlets]

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Backstory, Daydreaming, F/M, Fanmix, Ficlets, First Kiss, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 01:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11475399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: A fanmix for the second banana of Moon 13, and ficlets to go with the songs.





	TV's Son of TV's Frank [fanmix + ficlets]

**Author's Note:**

> I love making fanmixes. Absolutely love it. I had an excessively long playlist put together with all my songs that help me write fic, but I decided to break it down into a couple of smaller, more cohesive mixes. Second up is Max's mix. Each song has lyrics pulled out that made me pick the song, and then a little ficlet afterwards. Ficlets are all over the place, some fit with my other works, some don't. They're not all internally consistent with each other, but some are.
> 
> Mixes are hosted on Spotify, I'm pretty sure you can listen to them through the web without needing a Spotify account, but if I'm wrong about that someone let me know and I'll figure out what to do after that.

**TV’s Son of TV’s Frank**  
A soundtrack for Max  
[ [link] ](https://open.spotify.com/user/speccygeek/playlist/0yspO34TJSsVb6MLf7ywAZ)

 

**Bad Suns - Learn to Trust**

_Can I hold it down? Have I been trying my best?_   
_Eternal questions, always asking, feeling distressed, oh_   
_I'm a ticking bomb inside a selfless man_   
_You're a casualty I can't forget, so come on and let me know_

_A heart glows in the night, in the day hearts turn to dust_   
_Say it and mean it, so this heart learns to trust_   
_…_   
_Tell me one more time, why should I listen?_   
_Tell me one more time, the words all go missing_

***  
“Hold it down,” Kinga said, wielding the electric drill like the born Gizmocrat she was. “Steady…” Max tried not to flinch when the drill came a bare centimeter away from his fingers, but Kinga’s hands were steady today, and she finished quickly, setting the drill aside to manhandle the shelf they were putting together. It held solid, and she nodded in satisfaction. “Good. We’re smarter than DIY furniture. Always nice to know.”

“You’re terrifying with power tools,” Max said, and she grinned at him.

“I’m terrifying always. You just don’t realize it.”

“I’ve known you too long to be terrified always. Mostly you make me concerned now.”

“You’re probably the only person who’s concerned about me, so I’ll allow it.” She nudged him with her elbow. “Can’t have everyone terrified, I guess. Even I need someone to trust.”

“You trust me?”

“Duh. I thought that was obvious.”

“Well, you never come out and say it, so…” She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.

“Yes, Max, I trust you. So don’t do something super uncharacteristic like stab me in the back now that I’ve said the words.”

“Of course not,” he said, smiling slightly. “The last thing I’d want to do is break your trust now.”

“Let’s keep it that way.” She didn’t ask if he trusted her, and he honestly didn’t know how he’d answer if she did. He trusted her to make him worry, to confuse him, to make him hope for things he probably didn’t deserve. He trusted her to be unpredictable. He didn’t trust her with his heart only because he was almost sure she didn’t want it.  
***

 

**Saint Motel - Move**

_This man, this dutiful man has got this sense of devotion  
One look, one touch of a hand can set the spiral in motion_

_This girl, this beautiful girl with eyes the size of the ocean  
This man, this dutiful man has got these mixed up emotions_

_I want it, can't have it_   
_Oh, I can hardly stand it_   
_Oh, what's a man to do?_

***  
“No, not like that,” Kinga said, leaning over his shoulder, resting one hand on his back to steady herself. “You’re doing it all wrong. Each drop has to be separate, you can’t just put the whole dropper in with one squirt.” She tapped the flask with one fingernail. “Look, it’s all muddy. Totally ruined.”

“I’m sorry,” Max said, barely paying attention to anything except how close she was to him. “I’ll do better next time.”

“You’d better,” she said. “I don’t have the time to train another assistant. I just need you to fuck up less.” He looked up at her, and she scowled. “Think you can manage that?”

“I’ll do my best for you,” he said, and she rolled her eyes and took a step away from him.

“Make sure your best doesn’t suck, then.” He watched her walk away and sighed silently. This wasn’t what he was meant to be doing. Science wasn’t his thing, it was hers. But for her sake, he’d do almost anything, whether he was suited to it or not.  
***

 

**The Moth & the Flame - Red Flags**

_You're the warmth I feel beside me_   
_And the fear of growing cold_   
_The continual reminder_   
_Of the risk we take when we get involved_

_I've been warned enough_

_You were the only red flag_   
_The only red flag that I could never raise_   
_…_   
_Love is a one-way street_   
_Headed away from me_

***  
“Run!” she shouted, and took off like a shot. Max didn’t think twice, just did what she said, following her out of the lab mere seconds before something exploded with concussive force behind them, blowing the door off its hinges. She was fast, red ponytail streaming behind her like a banner as she ran, and Max had no hope of keeping up and no intention of lagging behind. They didn’t stop until they were clear of the building, and he leaned against the railing of the staircase as he descended, panting hard. She didn’t turn around until she’d reached the parking lot, looking wide-eyed back at the building and the smoke streaming out of the windows of what had been her lab.

“What… what did you _do_?” Max gasped as he caught up to her, and she shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said, and it was clearly a lie, but one he’d let her get away with for now. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, “are you?”

“Yeah.” She went to push her hair back, realized she was still wearing chemical-stained gloves, and peeled them off, dropping them on the pavement carelessly. “Shit, that could have been bad.”

“I’m pretty sure it was bad.”

“I mean bad like killing us. A little property damage isn’t a big deal.” They could hear the fire truck sirens already winding up the hill to the Gizmonics campus, counterpointed by ambulance sirens, and Max winced.

“We didn’t get hurt, but I bet someone did.” People were streaming out of the building, and he nodded toward the parking lot. “Want to split?”

“Good call,” she said. He was pretty sure she couldn’t outrun the consequences of her destruction, but at least he could get her away from the scene of the crime before anyone with a badge showed up.  
***

 

**Noah and the Whale - 2 Atoms in a Molecule**

_So now I look at love like being stabbed in the heart_   
_You torture each other from day to day and then one day you part_   
_Most of the time it's misery but there's some joy at the start_   
_Oh for that I'd say it's worth it, just use a blade that's short and sharp on me_

_I mean if love is just a game then how come it's no fun_   
_If love is just a game how come I've never won_   
_I guess maybe it's possible I might be playing it wrong_   
_And that's why every time I roll the dice I always come undone_

***  
“What are you doing?” Kinga asked crossly. “That’s not how it goes.”

“It totally is,” Max said, setting his last piece down on the board.

“It isn’t.”

“We’ve been playing this game since we were kids! That’s how it goes.”

“Have you ever actually read the rules?”

“Uh…”

“Our dads made up stupid house rules. We’ve been playing it wrong forever. That’s not how it goes.”

“Since when do you actually _want_ to play by the rules?” Max asked, giving her a puzzled look. “You break every rule in every game, house or not. You’re the absolute worst to play with because you cheat like crazy.” She scowled at him, and he shook his head. “You’ve cheated forever, I’m used to it.”

“Maybe I want to play it straight for once.”

“Yeah, pull the other one.”

“I’m serious.”

“In that case, we should start over, and I want to read the rules.”

“Why, don’t you trust me?” Max started laughing almost hysterically, and Kinga glowered at him. “It’s not a joke!”

“Yeah, it totally is,” Max gasped, still laughing. “No I don’t trust you about board games. If I was dumb enough to let you set the rules, I’d win even less than I do knowing that you’re cheating.” She huffed angrily, and he made an effort to stop laughing. “Look, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care one way or another. Just pick one set of rules to play by so I know what the hell we’re doing, and don’t switch them mid-game.”

“I don’t want to play any more,” she sulked, and he sighed.

“Fine. I’m sorry if I crushed your dreams of global domination.” He started sweeping all the army pieces off the board, and she collected the cards. “You’re lucky that Risk strategy has nothing to do with your plans to take over the world, or you’d be fucked.” She flipped him off, and he started laughing again.  
***

 

**Jonathan Coulton - Pulled Down the Stars**

_You dreamed of me_   
_I made a dream for you_   
_And I dreamed that you were in it_

_I lit up the sea_   
_I pulled down the stars for you_   
_And you made me wait a minute_

_Spinning in a distant place_   
_For a thousand years_   
_Dizzy when I see your face again_

***  
Max dreamed of Kinga often. He always had. Ever since she was tiny she went rampaging through his subconscious heedless of the damage she left in her wake-- not much different from their waking hours, to be honest.

Max also dreamed in epic scenes. Some people dreamed about everyday situations. Max’s dreams were never as boring as the real world. He was highly suggestible, so movies would get reworked and books brought to life in overblown Technicolor with heart-pounding plot twists and awesome soundtracks.

In the years they’d been apart, his dreams had sent him questing for her, across deserts with cracked earth, under the Antarctic ice, through rainforest so dense every forward step had to be cut through the foliage, in the warehouses on the docks of the largest cities, in the space between the stars. He had no idea where she’d gone, so his mind sent him everywhere, seeking and seeking and only rarely finding. The night she walked back into his life, he hadn’t slept at all, but when he took a nap in the afternoon his subconscious reveled in knowing for true what she looked like now and not just how he thought she’d have aged.

He couldn’t count the number of times he’d saved her in his dreams. Although, he also couldn’t count the number of times she’d saved him. Sometimes no one would need saving and they’d just go on awesome adventures together. They’d been spies, supervillains, superheroes, rock stars, wizards, aliens, dragons. She’d been a mermaid, a Valkyrie, a queen, a succubus. He’d been a werewolf, a starship captain, a planeswalker, a warlock. They’d saved or destroyed the world thousands of times in thirty years’ worth of dreams.

Max had amazing, fantastic dreams every night that dissolved into nothing as soon as he opened his eyes each morning. He never recalled more than a shred of any given dream, and he never realized what he’d forgotten. The only thing that lasted past waking was the mood the dream left him in. Max woke up happy more often than not.  
***

 

**Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?**

_Have you no idea that you're in deep?_   
_I dreamt about you nearly every night this week_   
_How many secrets can you keep?_   
_'Cause there's this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow and I play it on repeat_   
_Until I fall asleep_   
_Spilling drinks on my settee_

_Do I wanna know_   
_If this feeling flows both ways?_   
_Sad to see you go_   
_Was sort of hoping that you'd stay_   
_Baby, we both know_   
_That the nights were mainly made for saying things that you can't say tomorrow day_

_Crawling back to you_

_Ever thought of calling when you've had a few?_   
_'Cause I always do_   
_Maybe I'm too busy being yours to fall for somebody new_

***  
“Where’ve you been, man?” Jake asked, leaning across the table to fistbump Max. “I thought you died. Straight up abandoning the whole squad, that’s some shit.”

“I didn’t die… barely,” Max said. “What did I miss?”

“Like three prerelease events! Seriously, where did you go?”

“I didn’t go anywhere, I’ve just been busy.”

“Too busy for your friends,” Jake said, frowning exaggeratedly. “Harsh, man.”

“Hey, nobody even texted me, you couldn’t have missed me too much.”

“You lie like a lying liar who lies,” Tony said. “I texted you at least six times and you ignored me.”

“Must have been one of the times my phone was broken. It got thrown into a wall once, dropped in acid once, uh, she put it in the industrial microwave once…”

“Who did?”

“Kinga.”

“Kinga? _The_ Kinga?” Max nodded, and Jake and Tony gave each other a meaningful look. “Well, no wonder you abandoned us. She’s your Guinevere,” Jake said.

“Sounds like a lunatic,” Tony said, and Max glared at him. He held his hands up. “I’m just saying, if she’s trashing your stuff, that’s crazy behavior.”

“She’s not the most stable person I’ve ever known,” Max allowed. “But phones are replaceable and she’s not.”

“You could probably land a non-crazy chick,” Tony said. “Just saying.”

“What would be the fun in that?” Max asked sarcastically. “No. She’s the only one I want.”

“Does she want you, though?” Jake asked, and Max shrugged a little hopelessly.

“Even if she doesn’t, I’m not going to abandon her. I’d rather be near her without my feelings being reciprocated than be without her forever.”

“Yeah, but like… have you _asked_ her?”

“I’d rather not know for certain than know for certain that she doesn’t,” Max said. “If that makes sense.”

“Man, that’s no way to live,” Tony said, shaking his head. “Pull the trigger already.”

“Yeah right. The only way I’d be able to ask her is if I was so drunk I couldn’t stop myself from doing it, and she’s never seen me that drunk and I don’t plan to let her.” Max shrugged again. “I can’t imagine anything worse than getting wasted and drunk dialling her and having her shoot me down. I’d die on the spot.”

“You’re hopeless,” Tony said, and Jake smacked him across the back of the head.

“Lay off the man. He already knows.”

“Yeah. I already know,” Max said. “Look, are you going to pick apart my pathetic facsimile of a love life, or are we going to play Magic? Cause I didn’t come here to gossip. Shuffle them, nerds.”  
***

 

**Fall Out Boy - The Kids Aren’t Alright**

_Empty your sadness like you're dumping your purse on my bedroom floor_   
_We put your curse in reverse._

_And it's our time now if you want it to be._   
_Maul the world like a carnival bear set free._   
_And your love is anemic._   
_And I can't believe that you couldn't see it coming for me._

_And I still feel that rush in my veins._   
_It twists my head just a bit too thin._   
_All those people in those old photographs I've seen are dead._

_And in the end_   
_I'll do it all again._   
_I think you're my best friend._   
_Don't you know that the kids aren't al-, kids aren't alright?_   
_I'm yours._

***  
“So what have you been doing for the past six years?” Max asked as the pizza rolls were heating up in the oven. Kinga shrugged, pulling a chair from the kitchen table and sitting backwards on it, arms crossed on the chair back.

“School. Boarding school. Awkward holidays with Grandma, when she bothered to come get me. I got braces for two years, that sucked.”

“I missed you,” Max said mildly, and she put her head on her arms, looking up at him with a smile.

“I missed you too,” she said. “And you were the only one I missed that I had any chance of getting back. So here I am.”

“I’m glad you found me,” he said. “I tried to find you. Pearl totally stonewalled me. She told me my services were no longer required, can you believe that?”

“Sounds like Grandma,” Kinga sighed. “She told me you didn’t matter anymore when she left me there. I used to…” She snorted. “I used to daydream about you taking me away from the school and adopting me so no one could steal me again.”

“Really?” He had to laugh because the idea almost made him want to cry. If he’d thought for even a second that that was an option he would have fought Pearl tooth and claw to be allowed to raise her instead of letting her be taken from him. “I’m sorry I didn’t.”

“It wasn’t that bad after a while. School was interesting. I was, uh, kind of unpopular.”

“You? Unpopular? What did you do, tell everyone exactly how stupid they were?”

“More or less,” she said, flushing slightly. “There were a few girls who weren’t total idiots, but I was the youngest one in that group.”

“I hope you had friends there,” Max said, and she lifted one shoulder in an understated shrug.

“A couple of friends, a lot of frienemies. Allies. Sort of a mentor. You know. The sort of social politics you get when you stick a bunch of teenage girls in a fenced in compound and teach them what they need to become the next generation of super scientists.”

“I can’t say I’m familiar with those dynamics,” he said dryly. “As long as you weren’t alone.”

“Oh, I was never alone. Even when I wanted to be. Especially when I wanted to be.” She shook her head. “I mean, probably for the best, really. My roommate took me under her wing. I don’t know if they just put me with her because we’re both redheads or what. They tried to do a built-in mentor system by rooming younger girls with older ones. Didn’t work so well all the time, but Dana was really cool.”

“Did you stay out of trouble?” She snorted, and he grinned, already knowing the answer before he asked the question.

“Hell no. Root and I actually had a competition of who could break the most rules. Although we broke a lot of them together.”

“Root?”

“Her name’s Samantha but she liked to be called Root. The girls thought it was funny to call me Queenie instead of Kinga.”

“That’s sort of cute.”

“Most of them weren’t trying to be cute.” The timer went off, and she blinked a couple of times and shook her head again. “Don’t get me started, I’ll talk your ear off.”

“You say that as if I don’t want you to,” he said. “Tell me everything. I want to know what you got up to.” He turned to get the pizza rolls out of the oven and completely missed the look she gave him. It was the same look she’d given him whenever he’d bailed her out of a sticky situation as a kid-- part adoration, part gratitude, part mischief.  
***

 

**Fitz and the Tantrums - Out of My League**

_Forty days and forty nights_   
_I waited for a girl like you to come and save my life_   
_Recall the days I waited for you_   
_You know the ones who said, "I'd never find someone like you."_

_You were out of my league_   
_All the things I believe_   
_You were just the right kind_   
_Yeah, you are more than just a dream_   
_You were out of my league_   
_Got my heartbeat racing_   
_If I die don't wake me_   
_'Cause you are more than just a dream_

***  
"I'm so far out of your league," she said, and he winced.

"That hurts."

"Shut up, I wasn't finished. I'm out of your league, but you're still the best option I have."

"That still hurts, and now I'm confused."

"You're always confused," she said, rolling her eyes, and wrapped her fingers around the collar of his shirt. "Just... be quiet." His expression of puzzlement intensified into something that looked a lot like terror as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his and...

It was nice.

It was _really_ nice.

It was really nice for about five seconds and then she bit his lip hard and his knees almost gave out from underneath him and-- wow, that was a really embarrassing sound he just made. She pulled back and smirked at him, looking more evil than he'd ever seen before. "I think you liked that."

"You're not wrong," he said, and his hands fluttered, wanting to hold her but not sure she'd appreciate it. She let go of his collar to curl her hand around his nape, which was really nice, but then a second later she raked her nails across the back of his neck which was-- also nice, in that same knee-wobbling, embarrassing-sound way. "That hurts too."

"You've never minded it when I hurt you before," she said, looking so damn self-satisfied, and his face turned almost as red as her hair because it was uncomfortably close to being true.

"You've never meant it like this before," he protested weakly.

"Haven't I? How do you know what I meant?"

"Can't you-- be nice to me?" The sentence broke where she tugged on his hair, answering the question before it was even finished. No. She couldn't. She didn't know how, and he wouldn't know how to react even if she did. Well, if she was determined to toy with him, she couldn't get too mad if he reacted. He let his hands settle on her waist and he dug his fingers into her sides, not to hurt her but to tickle her where he knew it would get her the worst. She yelped and smacked his hands.

"No! Not cool!"

"No? Are you sure?" He didn't stop. "You're laughing, it sounds like you like it."

"I'll kill you to death!" He snorted and stopped tickling her, wrapping his hands over her sides instead. She glared daggers at him.

"Just because you're in charge doesn't mean you get your way unconditionally," he said sweetly. "You could at least ask for what you want instead of just doing it."

“Is that how you think this is going to go?”

“It was worth a shot.”

“Fine. Max… can I take ruthless advantage of you?”

“You’re such a romantic.” She arched her brows at him, and he sighed, not unhappily. “Yes, Kinga. Go right ahead. Whatever you want to do.” It wasn’t exactly true to say that he was resigned to his fate. He was actually looking forward to his fate.  
***

 

**Steve Aoki feat. Fall Out Boy - Back to Earth**

_This is a crooked path_   
_I think that I was meant to be next to you, to you_   
_We can never come back_   
_I think that I was meant to be next to you, to you_

_And you know I've found the dust to be resilient_   
_And we're the dirtiest of the dirt_   
_Every time we fall to pieces_   
_We build something new out of the hurt_   
_And we can never come back to earth_

***  
“This is it,” Kinga said. “Last chance to change your mind. After we do this, we can never come back.”

“You think I’m going to bail _now_?” Max said, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Kinga. You should know better.”

“I had to give you the chance,” she said with a grin. “I knew you wouldn’t, of course.”

“I think that I was meant to be next to you. On Earth or on the moon or wherever the hell we end up. Come on and let’s get it over with already.” She’d pulled him aside for this conversation. Now she pulled him back to the open airlock of their (now-terrestrial, soon to be) moon base and gave the Observer standing outside of it a smile.

“I think we’re ready,” she said, and Brain Guy nodded at her.

“Very well. Signal through the window when the airlock is fully closed and I’ll send you up.” She nodded and went to turn, and he coughed lightly. “Oh, and Kinga…” She paused and looked at him. “Pearl wanted me to tell you… she’s proud of you.” Max gave him a curious look when Kinga turned her back on him, and the Observer shook his head almost imperceptibly.

Of course. Pearl wouldn’t send that sort of message. But the Observer’s feelings weren’t what mattered to Kinga, even if he’d been there to see her mature from an awkward, mischievous preteen to a… well, still awkward, but much more capable mad scientist in her own right. She knew that someone was proud of her, at least. Max wondered if that would be his fate-- doomed to eternal second banana status, ascribing his own feelings to someone else who mattered more just to have them be heard.

Oh well. If that was what he had in store for him, so be it. They were about to become very isolated. If she wouldn’t listen to him when he was the only one around with anything worth saying, there’d never be any hope for more. But he wouldn’t know until they went there.

He followed her past the doors and took one last deep breath of fresh air before they were sealed in. They watched the pressure cycle through, and then Kinga put the thumbs up in the window… and then a second later, the view had changed from a weird pale alien standing in an open field to a weird pale moonscape dotted with craters.

Well. Here they were. He turned to her and didn’t expect her to fling her arms around his neck and bounce excitedly.

“It worked! Oh man I’m so glad it worked. We should check everything. Make sure there’s no place venting oxygen. It should be airtight but better to be sure.” They were at ground level. There were two floors above ground and fourteen below the surface. Lots of ground to cover. She looped her arm through his and pulled him along, not looking back to see the smile on his face as he let himself be hauled along.  
***

 

**Bad Suns - Cardiac Arrest**

_My innards turn, your eyes, they roll. I’ll be there to take the fall_   
_I can feel it now, oh no, oh no_   
_Same old story since day one, but I’ve got no place to run_   
_I can see it now, oh no, oh no_

_I’ll try my best, how much do I invest?_   
_Like cardiac arrest, high voltage in her lips_   
_I’ll try my best, how much do I invest?_   
_Like cardiac arrest, high voltage when we kiss_

***  
Kinga rolled her eyes, and Max felt his heart sink. He shouldn’t have said anything. He had no place to run, no way to avoid her and her scorn for his feelings. “I’m-- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have--”

“Shut up,” she said. “You think I didn’t know? Seriously? How dumb do you think I am?”

“You’re not dumb at all, you’re--”

“I said shut up.”

“But you asked me a question.”

“Shh!” She put a hand over his mouth and he shut up, eyes going wide. “Max. I knew already. You didn’t have to say it. It’s obvious.” He tried to say something, and she clamped her hand tighter over his mouth. “Still shut up. You said it so now I have to respond to it. Right? That’s the point of this declaration? To get me to respond to it?” He nodded a little, and she sighed. “Okay. If that’s what you want.” She took her hand off his mouth and stared at him for a moment, then leaned in and kissed him.

His heart skipped at least one beat at the touch of her lips. It was a soft, almost hesitant kiss, and when he kissed her back a bit more firmly she made a surprised sound and clutched at his arms.

“Tell me you felt that,” he said.

“That spark?”

“Oh thank god.” He couldn’t imagine anything worse than thinking there was a spark if she didn’t think so too, but she smiled a little and leaned in to do it again, less hesitant this time.  
***

 

**Joywave - It’s a Trip**

_When you've gotten what you want_   
_Maybe I should start over_   
_There's nothing left to want_   
_Up and at 'em again_   
_You don't know what you want_   
_Yeah, I'm thinking it over_   
_Just tell me what to want_

_Floating little second hands laugh like jokers_   
_Keepin' me from thinking straight, I've lost composure_

***  
“Congratulations,” Max said as Kinga took a seat at the desk in the Oval Office for the first time. “It’s not the world, but it’s a start.”

“Please, this wasn’t mad science,” she said, leaning back in the chair. “This was practically humanitarian. Where are we on the execution schedule?”

“Uh, we took care of the president, vice president, and most of the cabinet. Where did you come down on the senators?”

“Are any of them really worth saving?”

“I think you should offer Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren positions in your administration, actually.”

“Yeah? I can go along with that. What about Elon Musk, is he busy?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s busy, but he’d make time for the new ruler of the United States,” Max said dryly. “You’ve already got a sky-high approval rating after the televised executions. Blood and circuses.”

“It’s bread and circuses,” she corrected him, “but let’s be honest, media dominance was my goal, and _everyone_ tuned in to watch those criminal incompetents eat lead. Worldwide.”

“You’ve gotten what you want. Now what?”

“Oh, jeez… I don’t know. Find the right people to delegate to. Not just Elon… call up Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye too. Let them decide what positions they want. We just need to get them working on large-scale solutions yesterday.”

“You know what’s a good resource for large-scale science…”

“Don’t say it, Max.”

“Come on, you _know_ Gizmonics has people working on carbon capture and weather manipulation. Not to mention the kinds of death rays you’ve been dreaming of since you were a little girl.”

“They expelled me!”

“Who cares? If you fix the world, I’m pretty sure they’ll just give you the doctorate.” She rolled her eyes and leaned forward, steepling her hands in front of her.

“What do _you_ want?”

“Me?” Max pointed to himself and she nodded. “I have no idea. I’ve barely had five minutes to myself to think in the past week. Just tell me what to want. We have too much to do for me to waste time on my own desires.” She tilted her head thoughtfully, and he leaned against the desk, sighing.

“You really want me to tell you what you want?” Her tone of voice made him look at her sharply, and she smirked. “You want to help me run this mess.”

“Kinga, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now.”

“You’re my second in command right now. I think you want to be on my level.” He looked puzzled, and her smirk became a grin. “What do people love more than anything?”

“Uh… benevolent rulers?” he guessed. She shook her head. “Living peacefully?”

“ _No_ , silly. People love a royal wedding.”

“Yeah, they-- wait, _what_?”

“Marry me,” she said. He went pale.

“Don’t fuck with me, please.”

“I’m not fucking with you! I’m being serious. Here, look…” She slid out of her chair and went to one knee in front of him. “Max. Marry me. Be my husband. Let’s rule the shit out of this country. It’ll be fun, you know you want to.”

“You are a madwoman,” he laughed, pulling her up to her feet. “Fine! If you’re actually being serious, then I’m seriously saying yes. Let’s do it.”

“Awesome,” she said, and stole a kiss so quick he didn’t have a chance to return it. “Okay. You go do the serious stuff that needs to get done. I can’t think about this shit any more or I’ll scream so I’m going to look at wedding dresses.”

“You’re going to be a bridezilla, aren’t you.”

“Yes and also we’re going to serve dinosaur at the reception.”

“That’s the woman I love.”  
***

 

**Metric - Calculation Theme**

_Sleep don't pacify us until_   
_Daybreak sky lights up the grid we live in_   
_Dizzy when we talk so fast_   
_Fields of numbers streaming past_

_I wish we were farmers, I wish we knew how_   
_To grow sweet potatoes and milk cows_

_I wish we were lovers, but it’s for the best_

 

***  
Sometimes Max wondered what his life would be like if his father had never met Dr. Forrester. He honestly couldn’t visualize it. Or what it would be like if his mother had still been around. He hardly remembered her, barely more than a toddler when she’d died in a car accident. If she’d survived, Frank never would have met the mad scientist, and Max would have had a normal childhood.

It was not a comforting thought. He didn’t dwell on it much.

Some things were easier to imagine. What if they’d lived in a real house instead of in Deep 13? He couldn’t imagine just himself and his father in the house, it seemed impossible for him to imagine a home that didn’t include Dr. F. and Kinga. But he could imagine a normal home, maybe two stories, a fenced in backyard, a kitchen table to do homework on, a living room couch to do family film nights, a neighborhood with other kids to play with. Maybe a cat or dog instead of lab animals and experiments. Not a normal childhood, but closer to normal.

What if Dr. F. hadn’t turned into a star baby? There’d been some time between Frank being taken to Second Banana Heaven and that, but even though Max had been a legal adult by then Dr. F never told him to move out. It was Pearl who had forced him to leave. That was a weird one to think about, though. It was the time that he’d spent apart from Kinga that had lead to the way his feelings for her had changed. If they’d never been parted… thinking about that one wasn’t too comfortable, either.

The closer he imagined the change to where he was now, the easier it got to imagine. What if Kinga had said to hell with science after Gizmonics expelled her? What if they’d moved to the country and learned how to farm, woke up at dawn to milk cows, spent their days getting farmers’ tans and working their hands rough in the fields? That one was amusing but not serious. Kinga burned so easily in the sun that she’d never make it working outdoors. She wasn’t the manual labor type, anyways. Max could see himself doing that sort of thing, maybe, but not for a lifetime.

What if she hadn’t scorned him when he told her that he loved her? That was the one he thought about the most, by far. What if she’d been happy to hear it? What if she’d been embarrassed but pleased? What if she’d let him kiss her, hold her in his arms, tell her again and again just because he’d waited so long to say it in the first place? What if she’d said it back to him?

What if…? He knew he shouldn’t dwell on it. His imagination had nothing to do with the life he was living. But that didn’t stop him from wondering sometimes.  
***

 

**Angel Olsen - Shut Up Kiss Me**

_I could make it all go away_   
_Tell me what you think_   
_And don't delay_   
_We could still be having some_   
_Sweet memories_   
_This heart still beats for you_   
_Why can't you see?_   
_..._   
_Stop pretending I'm not there_   
_When it's clear I'm not going anywhere_   
_If I'm out of sight then take another look around_   
_I'm still out there hoping to be found_

_Shut up kiss me  
Hold me tight_

***  
“Max?” She’d been looking for him for a solid fifteen minutes, to no avail. He’d disappeared after they finished today’s experiment, but she still needed his help, and he was nowhere to be found. “Max, where’d you go?” She found him on the top floor of their moon base, sitting next to a window looking out at the moonscape with his head in his hands. “There you are, jeez. What are you doing?”

“Thinking,” he said, and she crossed her arms and cocked her head at him.

“Thinking about what?”

“None of your business,” he said with a laugh, and she scowled at him. “Thinking about you, of course. Why were you looking for me?”

“Because I-- you were thinking about me? Really?”

“Yes,” he said, and sighed as he got to his feet. “Did you need me for something?”

“I did,” she said, and couldn’t remember what that reason was, so she just stood there and looked at him for a moment. He arched a brow expectantly, but she didn’t say anything else.

“I can’t read your mind, so you’ll have to tell me.”

“What were you thinking about me?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”

“If I asked, I want the answer,” she said stubbornly, and he shook his head. “Come on. Tell me.”

“I was thinking about what I wanted to say next time you started yelling.”

“...and?” He just smiled. She stamped a foot. “Come on, tell me!”

“No.”

“Max! Tell me what you were thinking!” He shook his head, and she took a deep breath. “Tell me tell me tell me tell me--”

“Shut up and kiss me,” he said mildly, and she stopped with her jaw dropped, blinking at him. He shrugged. “I told you you didn’t want to--” She surged forward and kissed him like an attack, and he squeaked in surprise and put his hands on her waist. She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him tightly, and it was his turn to gape at her when she pulled back. “You--”

“Dumbass,” she said fondly. “Worth it for the look on your face.” She didn’t let go of him, and when he managed to close his mouth she kissed him again. She kept doing it until he didn’t have that dumb look on his face when she stopped kissing him.  
***


End file.
